An email chastising the eating etiquette of students at Osgoode Hall Law School has become a media sensation.

It started Wednesday evening when Jezebel, a gossip blog, posted an email that hit the inbox of 72 students in an administrative law class.

The author, who signed the email as Jessica White, an anonymous pseudonym, harangued students for distracting the class by eating “[a]pples, pineapples and other crunchy fruit” and for snacking as soon as class begins.

The post quickly triggered a media storm.

Above the Law published a column lambasting the student as “as oversensitive and cray-cray,” the National Post picked up the story and the Globe and Mail published a lengthy response to the initial email.

The American Bar Association Journal also covered the ongoing saga. In its story, James Stribopoulos, the associate dean at Osgoode, said if the email is confirmed to originate from a student (the email address is a fake Osgoode account that, so far, can only be traced to the Czech Republic), it would violate expectations of civility and an investigation would be launched.

Meanwhile, Osgoode students rallied in favour of their fundamental right to snack, holding a pineapple appreciation day yesterday.

The viral nature of the story has surprised Stockwoods lawyer Brendan Van Niejenhuis, the adjunct professor who teaches the administrative law class at the centre of the drama (who, by the way, is one of our Precedent Setter Award winners).

“I’ve found the whole set of events mildly amusing and the fact that the media have picked it up a touch bewildering,” Van Niejenhuis writes in an email to Precedent. “I think the students’ reaction, the pineapple rally, etc., are a lot more about web culture than about law.”